Fair-Mont-Egan School’s summer construction project recently was bolstered by a pair of grants totaling more than $10,000.

The elementary school district recently received a $5,822 grant from Flathead Electric Cooperative’s Roundup for Safety program and  a check for $5,000 from Plum Creek Timber Co.

Those grants are slated for specific use in Fair-Mont-Egan’s $523,000 remodeling project.

The Roundup for Safety grant will be used to expand the school’s existing fire and bell alarm systems into the new classrooms and offices under construction. The Plum Creek grant will be used to purchase lumber to frame new seventh- and eighth-grade classrooms.

Those new classrooms will free up space in the old seventh- and eighth-grade rooms, allowing Fair-Mont-Egan’s Title I and special education students to move in.

Until now, Title I and special education instruction have taken place in hallways, in the gym, on the lunchroom stage or anywhere else students and teachers could squeeze into.

“This project will solve a number of issues for us and provide a better environment for learning,” Principal Christine Schmidt-Anthony said in a press release from Plum Creek.

In addition to the new classrooms, Fair-Mont-Egan will get a central hallway, an administrative office entry area connecting the school’s two buildings, a handicapped-accessible restroom and a renovated lunchroom. A new wastewater system to replace its 43-year-old septic system already has been installed, district clerk Susan Clanton said.

The bulk of the work began last month after students were released for the summer. School officials say work is scheduled for completion before the new school year begins Sept. 6 — and so far, it looks like workers will meet that goal.

“It’s going well. We’re on schedule and under budget,” Clanton said.

Most of the project is being paid for by the state via a $379,110 Quality Schools Facility Grant. The grant program, administered by the state Department of Commerce, will distribute more than $11 million to 30 Montana schools — including Somers Middle School and Whitefish High School — over the next biennium.

Work not covered by the Quality Schools Facility Grant will be paid for out of Fair-Mont-Egan’s building reserve, flex and general funds, one-time-only money from deferred maintenance and grants like the awards from Plum Creek and Flathead Electric.